Financial Services Committee

Press Releases

WEEK IN REVIEW

Washington,
July 8, 2016 -

Subcommittee Investigates the Implications of U.S. Aircraft Sales to Iran

The Monetary Policy and Trade Subcommittee met Thursday to discuss the implications of U.S. aircraft sales to Iran, which the U.S. State Department reports is the “world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism.”

The Boeing Company recently announced a multi-billion dollar deal to sell and lease airplanes to Iran in what would be the biggest business transaction with the country since its 1979 Islamic revolution.

As the Washington Times reported in its coverage of the hearing, Subcommittee members said there is no way “to ensure hard-line elements such as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard do not divert some of the Boeing fleet to their own use.”

Bloomberg reported that one of the hearing’s witnesses said the deal between Boeing and Iran “risks implicating major U.S. companies in the Islamic Republic’s support for terrorism and regional adventurism.”

“Let’s hope Boeing rethinks their decision and if they do not, our work is clear. We must ensure that American taxpayers and depositors will not have their funds used to back financing for the Ayatollahs and the world’s greatest state sponsor of terrorism,” Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) said during the hearing.

House Passes Three Bipartisan Financial Services Bills

On Tuesday, the House overwhelmingly passed three bipartisan financial services bills.

The bills will help startup businesses gain access to investment capital and help law enforcement prevent financial fraud against senior citizens.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro will appear before the Committee on Wednesday to answer questions about his decision to make sudden policy changes to the sale of nonperforming loans insured by the government.

Back in March, Chairman Hensarling and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL) sent a letter to Secretary Castro promising “immediate hearings…to investigate any changes made to these programs that would undermine their fundamental purpose or otherwise make unwise use of taxpayer dollars.”

“Secretary Castro was told months in advance that changes harming taxpayers would result in a congressional hearing, and we’re simply following through. Hardworking taxpayers deserve to know why Secretary Castro suddenly decided to expose them to greater losses and worsen the nation’s already unsustainable national debt. The changes he’s making rig the program so certain buyers approved by Washington elites can receive steep discounts on properties and leave taxpayers holding the bag.”

Nearly a decade after the recession began, the economy is barely limping along. Millions of people across the country have suffered under the weight of President Obama’s policies. The disaster that is Dodd-Frank has only added to the malaise of this feeble recovery.

THE MOST important financial decisions in life aren't made in Wall Street board rooms or by bureaucrats in Washington — they're made around kitchen tables. Around these tables families look at their bills, their savings, their job prospects and their personal finances and try to figure out how to get ahead in this terrible economy. Unfortunately, the Dodd-Frank Act, the law that was enacted in 2010 with huge promises of economic recovery, has stifled the financial success of families, businesses and entrepreneurs.

While unveiling his reforms in a speech to the Economic Club of New York, the Texas Republican called Dodd-Frank “a breathtaking, unconstitutional outsourcing of legislative powers to the executive branch.”

As most small-business owners know, starting your own company isn’t easy. Cash isn’t always available to grow your company, and banks and credit unions don’t make loans less than $1,000 to people like me, or to anyone else for that matter. Access to credit is hard to come by for many small-business owners, but next to impossible for those of us who’ve made mistakes in our past. Personal loans, known as payday and title loans, were my only option to keep my business afloat.